The God of Peace, II Corinthians 13:11-14
Introduction
I know a man who not long ago gave his heart to Christ, and has since lived a very happy Christian, who for a long time prior to his conversion had been so eaten up by care and anxiety that he had been ill-natured on account of it.
His religion had the happy effect of healing not only his mind and heart, but his body as well. When he became happy in the consciousness of the forgiveness of his sins and rejoiced in peace with God, his mind was at rest.
He quit worrying. He did not fret any more. He slept well, had a good appetite, and digested his food without difficulty. He had a friend who was an unbeliever, who did not believe in the Bible or in Christ, but who was also ill-natured.
They had been accustomed to meet and lunch together in a restaurant. When the skeptic saw that his friend’s temper was gone, he was anxious to know what had cured him.
And when he was told, with a happy, sincere face behind it, that it was the joyous heart that had come to him through Jesus Christ, you may be sure that it aroused that man’s attention as a thousand sermons from the pulpit never could have done, and the skeptic was glad to go with his Christian friend to hear the message which had so transformed him.
The greatest evidence of Christianity is a transformed life. The greatest sermon ever preached is an object lesson in Christian faith – the one which is lived out in the concreteness of our actions – not that which is talked about with our words.
Dietrich Bonhoeffer once wrote that “one act of obedience is better than one hundred sermons.” It has been well stated that action speak louder than words.
Transition
We serve a God of peace and our lives ought to reflect that peace. The peace of God should be plainly evident in our personal conduct, in our interaction with our families, in our church conduct, and in every other area of our lives.
What do the actions of our lives say about the kind of God we serve? If the story of our lives and our church were only told by our deeds, would the story reflect a god of division, disunity, and strife or the true and Living God of peace?
Scripture
Today’s Scripture is found in II Corinthians 13:11-14 where the Apostle Paul writes, “Finally, brethren, rejoice, be made complete, be comforted, be like-minded, live in peace; and the God of love and peace will be with you. Greet one another with a holy kiss. All the saints greet you. The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit, be with you all.
(NASB)
Exposition
This passage of Scripture is the concluding paragraph in a letter which the Apostle Paul wrote to the church which he had started and fostered in the City of Corinth approximately three years before the writing of II Corinthians.
While this letter has doctrinal content, it is primarily the work of a man of God who had poured out his life into the church which he founded. Remember that in those days – as in some parts of the world today – when an evangelist came to town he was spreading what was previously a completely unheard message.
He lived among people and shared the gospel of Christ with them. He gave his testimony to them but I suspect that it was largely the light of Christ which was evident in him that ultimately attracted people to the Gospel.
If we are honest, is it true that the same could be said of us? In verse 11 Paul tells the church of Corinth – and us – to be like minded and live in peace. But very often our churches are not like minded and we do not live in peace.
Unity within the body of Christ often seems like little more than a lofty Christian ideal which is seldom realized. The Church is broken and splintered into a thousand Denominations, Denominations are splintered into factions, and local churches are divided.
Unity – like mindedness – seems like the proverbial carrot always just out of the donkeys reach. Yet, is right to dismiss the possibility of genuine unity in our churches simply because it is not often realized? Does the validity of the idea of unity rest solely on our ability to bring it into being?
Or have we become so accustomed to mediocrity in our religious life that we gladly accept so much less than that to which we have been called? Have we, as the body of Christ, abandoned our call to unity in the name of expediency?
In these days there is a great deal of lowering the standards. Businessmen say that business standards have been lowered, and now a good deal of business runs into gambling. In politics the standards have been lowered.
There has been a lowering of standards in theology and in reference to the supreme authority of God’s blessed Book. We must keep the standard up to the very tip-top peak of God’s flagstaff. Be careful, my brother, about lowering your standard of right, obedience, and holiness.
You remember, perhaps, that scene in the days of conflict when a color-sergeant had carried the colors so near to the enemy’s entrenchment that the regiment shouted to him to bring them back, or they would be captured. The color-sergeant said, “No, no; bring your men up to the colors!”
With a magnificent dash they carried the colors themselves into the fight. The commandment of the Captain of our salvation to us is, “Bring my church up to my colors, and then we will go forward and capture the enemy.”
The enemy which we must capture is the very collection of things which would seek to destroy unity within the fellowship of believers.
In II Corinthians 12:20 Paul writes, “For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances.” (NASB)
The testimony of our church to this community, and the testimony of the entire body of Christ to the world for that matter, is not how well we can present positive arguments for the existence of God or how large our evangelistic campaigns can become.
In John 13:34 Jesus said, “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another, even as I have loved you, that you also love one another.” (NASB)
The greatest witness to the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ to transform lives is the clear evidence of actual transformed lives.
If we do not walk in the peace of God what evidence is there to show the world of the very peace which we celebrate? If we are not different from the world then what is to attract the world to the peace and hope that we offer?
We serve a God of peace. As we walk out our Christian journey we work experience Christ as individuals but we also walk out our journey of faith together in the fellowship of the Holy Spirit.
This Advent Season we celebrate the peace that has come to us in the person and Lordship of Jesus Christ. We honor the peace that we have been given in our own relationships with God.
In Romans 5:1 is written, “Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.” (NASB)
We obtain peace with God through faith in Jesus Christ. We experience the peace of God as we walk in unity with Christ and with one another.
We are a diverse people. Thank God that our unity is not based on our agreement with one another. The like mindedness that the Apostle Paul speaks of in this passage has very little to do with us all sharing the same opinions about this thing or that thing.
The like mindedness that the Apostle Paul speaks of is that all of us – alike – share the mind of Christ.
I Corinthians 1:10 says, “Now I exhort you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that you all agree and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be made complete in the same mind and in the same judgment.” (NASB)
In I Corinthians 2:16 it says, “For who has known the mind of the lord, that he will instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.” (NASB)
In his observations on I Corinthians, J. Stuart Holden gives a beautiful illustration. He says, “I have around my home a garden. In that garden and its possibilities I have the mind of nature. For instance, I know what soil and what seed should produce this, that, and all the other kinds of flowers and fruit;
I see set forth in the seedsmen’s catalogues the wonderful things that the garden should bring forth …. But mark you, the flowers and the fruit are only produced by labor, by obedience to the laws of nature.
When the garden has been made beautiful and fruitful, it has been made so only by intelligent cooperation with nature.
Similarly, we Christians have the mind of Christ. We know full well what a Christian life should be.” The fruits of the Spirit are only made evident in our lives as we wholeheartedly cooperate with the Lord in full submission and obedience to Him by letting His Spirit have full control of us—body, soul and spirit.
Conclusion
Today let us recommit ourselves to not only serving the God of peace but to experiencing the peace of God in our lives and in our fellowship.
Let us not abandon the ideal of unity and peace among the brethren simply because it is a goal that must be worked at if it is to be achieved.
Like the man in the story I shared with you as we began, it is a transformed life and the degree of love, compassion, and unity which we share together which tells the world the most about the God of peace.
Amen.
